Labor Pains

About the Author

It's a strange world, indeed, when one finds
oneself rooting for Alistair Campbell, the slick communications
strategist and miracle worker behind the scenes of British Prime
Minister Tony Blair's government. Mr. Campbell is sometimes known
as Britain's "real prime minister," a hard-line, take-no-prisoners
Laborite type. Britain's Labor government is in major trouble, and
many Americans undoubtedly feel a sense of loyalty to our best ally
in the war in Iraq. Yet, war makes strange bedfellows, and not all
that Britain's Labor Party stands for would make Americans feel at
ease.

What happened this
week was that Mr. Campbell was exonerated by a parliamentary
committee of "sexing up" the facts in the government's first
dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD),
dating back to last September. Additionally, Mr. Campbell had the
satisfaction of sticking a thumb in the eye of the BBC, also now
known as the Baghdad Broadcasting Co., which initially broadcasted
the accusations against him.

The House of Commons
Foreign Affairs Committee concluded that Mr. Campbell had not
exerted "improper influence" on the intelligence dossier, which
included a much disputed section stating that Saddam's WMD could be
deployed within 45 minutes. The foreign affairs panel, on the other
hand, did harshly criticize Mr. Blair's February presentation to
the British Parliament on Iraq's WMD, now known as the "dodgy
dossier," which included a plagiarized section on uranium smuggling
from an Internet source with 12-year-old information.

With the Labor
government under intense attack at home for its handling of
intelligence estimates -- far more than anything felt in
Washington, where allegations of undue pressure on intelligence
officers are also being leveled at high-level government officials
-- you have to feel some sympathy for Mr. Blair. He stood by the
United States when we needed allies, courageously and
steadfastly.

And while Americans
continue in their support of the Bush policy in Iraq, in Britain,
public support for the war was always much more fragile. Mr.
Blair's domestic popularity ratings have taken a bad nosedive to
the point where Labor has actually been overtaken by the
long-languishing Conservative Party in the polls. This is a most
unexpected turn of events.

But this crisis of
confidence goes beyond foreign policy. In terms of Mr. Blair's
domestic policies, reservations are definitely in order. Mr. Blair
has been high-handed and arrogant in the way he has tried to change
age-old British political institutions. Sometimes his maneuvers
have been opportunistic and brought Labor an unfair advantage.
Sometimes, the result has simply been chaotic.

The most recent such
move was the creation of a new secretary of constitutional affairs
to rule on civil legal matters, a position to which Mr. Blair
appointed a buddy of his. This new position was to assume some of
the powers hitherto held by the Lord Chancellor, head of the House
of Lords and the highest law officer in the land, which dates back
beyond the Middle Ages. Mr. Blair decided overnight and without
consultation to abolish this office, but the sitting lord
chancellor has shown no inclination to give up his job, making the
line of authority in constitutional matters unclear.

The House of Lords
itself, a quirky and venerable institution, has particularly been
in Mr. Blair's sights, in part because the Lords have the power to
delay legislation and therefore do have political influence.
Reforms have been initiated, but not completed, to the effect of
increasing the number of peers for life that are appointed by the
prime minister. While Mr. Blair argues that his intention is to
bring Britain into the 21st century, critics have suggested this
looks more like a bloodless coup.

And finally, there's
the perennial question of Britain's entry into the euro-zone. In
late June, Mr. Blair's government said that economic conditions are
not yet right for entry, and pledged to work hard for it. This
pledge has been made before without any significant follow-up, and
leaves Mr. Blair sounding rather like the saint who prayed to be
made virtuous and chaste, "but not yet." The British, however,
remain firmly behind their currency and their cherished
institutions, and resent attempts to take them
away.

Mr. Blair, in other
words, has lost the confidence of the British electorate, despite
huge initial popularity and a commanding majority in Parliament.
For Americans, the main regret is that the issue that has now
brought this to a head is his steadfast support for the United
States.

Helle
Dale is deputy director of the Davis Institute for
International Studies atThe Heritage
Foundation.